The current exhibit of “20 Small Paintings By Americans” at the Fine Arts Center on Park Avenue West is one of the most compact yet intriguing displays to come to Mansfield.

It remains at the gallery until next Saturday, with no admission charge. In this permanent collection loaned to the Mansfield Fine Arts Guild by IBM’s department of Arts and Sciences, viewers can have an uncluttered look at some excellently representative work by renowned painters of the United States, most of them deceased.

The 20 paintings valued at $75,000, hang unpretentiously in the gallery but each offers an individual adventure that becomes as deep and varied as the spectator’s interpretation will allow.

For instance, there are the portraits. On picture of a young girl, Patricia, by Texas-born Murray Bewley, is startling and exquisite, a pattern of frilly whites and creamy skin tones. By contrast, Tam O’Shanter by George De Forest Brush, a native of Tennessee, contains the deep, brooding colors and detailed landscape background of an Italian Renaissance work. Perhaps the rich russets and reds of Tam O’Shanter come from Brush’s beginnings as a painter of Indian life and mythology.

Though the exhibit contains the works of “Americans” from Massachusetts, New York, Georgia, Kansas, New Jersey and Texas, three of the artists were actually foreign born, coming from England, Copenhagen and Scotland. Emil Carlsen’s Danish sense of simple beauty and rich exploration of basic color themes, is revealed in a charming still life entitled Brass Jar With Onions.

Besides still life and portraiture, the show contains careful selections of seascapes and landscapes. These range from the primitive American style of Grandma Moses’ Maple Sugar Orchard to the richly textured and traditional Cattle By A Pond, by William M. Hart who died in 1894. Originally from Scotland, Hart was a member of the “Hudson River School.” His native roots seem to have a bearing on this picture and its subtle tones of shadow, sky, trees and earth.

A few of the artists represented were largely self-taught, and at least one, Grandma Moses, had no art training whatsoever. Between such inborn genius for color construction and subject composition, and the work of the professionally guided artists in the exhibit, there is a warm and flowing line of rapport. This is what makes the show an outstanding example of the spiritual unity which all artists enjoy, regardless of technique or school of thought.

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The author of this artwork died more than 70 years ago. According to U.S. Copyright Law, copyright expires 70 years after the author’s death. In other countries, legislation may differ.